Another Martha Hall Kelly gem! Her characters intrigue me; her storylines engage me. Against a backdrop of World War II, we meet the title characters, two women recruited at a young age as spies during the French Resistance and imprisoned at Ravensbruck. Having witnessed the horrors of Naziism, they continue to search for answers and atonement after the war. Arlette is a French mother who grieves for her lost son and Josie, an American daughter who grieves for her murdered mother. The tense plot provides a page-turning experience; the characters evoke strong reactions from the reader, especially against a group of former Nazi doctors and scientists seeking asylum from the U.S. and Russian governments. This work lingers with me as I look forward to her next.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This novel is by one of my favorite authors, Martha Hall Kelly. When you pick up her books you are sure to be pulled into an exciting historical novel that takes your breath away. This one is no exception. It is set in two time frames, 1945 during WWII and 1952 after the war and every other chapter goes back and forth setting the stage for the more modern plots.

Josie and Arlette are chosen to act as spies in Paris capturing radio transmissions from the Nazis to send to the Americans. They become known as The Golden Doves and the Nazis are frantic to stop them and capture them. When they are found they are sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp for women. While there they witness medical experiments on the women and children held there and all of a sudden Arlette’s baby son is taken from her. After the war ends the two women reunite to try to find the Medical head of the camp in order to put Dr Snow on trial as a Nazi war criminal. Arlette gets news that her son is still alive and in living in an orphanage in French Guinea, where she can possibly be reunited with him. The story is so full of twist and turns that it leaves you breathless. Whom can they trust? I loved this book and highly recommend it. There is so much information that I did not know in the book and it is well researched. Once you begin reading it you will not want to put it down.

4.5 Stars

This historical novel continues the stories written by Martha Hall Kelly that look back on the years around World War II in ’Lilac Girls’, but with a different eye. Those in the world who wish to find justice for those who were impacted, and to bring those who were behind the horrifying treatments that Nazis inflicted on all those they wished to eliminate. Entire groups of people that they determined as ‘inferior.’

This story begins with Josie, stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas in 1952, who spends six days out of the week staring at photographs of German soldiers, sifting through them, trying to determine which of Hitler’s scientists might hold value to their program. She is the daughter of an American diplomat, and was friends with Arlette, a half-Jewish young mother whose baby’s German father left when the Nazis were looking for young men to fight for Hitler’s dream.

These two young women became close working in the resistance, trying to obstruct the Nazis in Vichy France. Their work in the resistance as part of The Golden Doves is crucial to the success, or failure, of the resistance. Crucial for the lives of many, including Arlette’s baby, Willie. But their work for the resistance comes to an end, and they end up at Ravensbruck.

Their friendship continues at Ravensbrück, where they spend many years and where Arlette is separated from her son. Later, after they are released, Arlette tries to adjust to a life without her son, but is also very determined to find him.

Like all of the stories centered around WWII, there are tense moments, disturbing ones, as well, but there’s also a lot of back and forth through time, and varying perspectives that add to the story, and new people that enter the picture. There’s a sprinkling of a potential romance, as well, and a journey when Arlette goes in search of her son after the war, and years have passed.

A compelling read that offered new insights into both the war, the impact the war had on the world, and on families who were left searching for answers of their loved ones, as well as the stories behind the search for those who had yet to be held accountable.


Pub Date: 18 Apr 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books

Based on real life people and experiences,The Golden Doves tell the story of how Nazi war criminals escaped being brought to justice at the conclusion of the war through the efforts of the United States and the. Vatican.

Although only teenagers, Josie and Arlette become friends through their work in the French resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Extremely successful in ferreting information from right under the noses of the Nazis and delivering the messages to the underground, they become known as The Golden Doves. An attempt to help a child leads to their eventual arrest and, with their identities still unknown, they are sent to Ravensbruuck, a women’s concentration camp.

Told in two voices and between two timelines we learn of the horrors of camp life and how it shaped the course of their lives after liberation, providing the impetus to continue their search for justice. A wonderful story about the resilience of the human spirit.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance reader’s copy.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Golden Doves in exchange for an honest review. All I can say is WOW!!! Martha Hall Kelly blew me away with this one. It's definitely her best book yet. It was so different than any other WWII novel that I've read. I loved that the present day of the novel took place in the very aftermath of post-WWII opposed to having the story finish the end of the war, implying all is well again. It was refreshing to see how Josie and Arlette were transitioning to their new lives after all of the horrors they faced during the war. I loved that they were both such strong characters with very different personalities. Mostly, I enjoyed how much of a thriller the plot was. I was literally on the edge of my seat throughout every page. Every time I thought I had it figured out, the story would go in another direction. This book truly has it all; friendship, family, love, espionage, mystery, secrets, lies, and action packed drama. It's a must read!

4.5 ⭐

++Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy of Ms. Kelly's newest novel. These views are my own opinions and thoughts.++

I am a huge fan of MHK's books. I was in awe of her debut Lilac Girls and subsequent other two in the series featuring the Ferriday women and their roles in conflicts both on US soil and abroad. Kelly's research makes the characters and action on the page so relevant and interesting.
In her latest work, The Golden Doves, she returns in a way, to her first book in that the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück features prominently in the storyline. Her main characters Josie and Arlette meet up while in Paris to act as radio transmitters and spies in the resistance while living together and taking care of Arlette's newborn, Willy and become lifetime best friends. Willy's father has left to fight in the name of the Nazi party so Willy's Aryan pedigree is quite an attractive quality. But as the women, dubbed the Golden Doves, become more and more successful in their efforts to thwart the Nazi presence as the war marches on, they become targets with a bounty on their heads and everyone is looking for the duo. Through some unfortunate events, their undercover work is discovered and they are sent to Ravensbrück and try to struggle to live out the remainder of the war. The author recalls many of the real life characters first introduced in The Lilac Girls which the reader will appreciate as they carry out their evil programs of medical experiments on the prisoners of the camp. Arlette and Willy are removed to the kinderzimmer which allowed mothers and their children to stay together so the mothers would be more productive as free labor for the camp and not worrying about the wellbeing of their children. Josie also discovers that her Jewish mother has been brought to Ravensbrück but is kept in a different part of the camp. She uses her influence and relationship with a woman called Ariana who seems to be well connected in the hierarchy of the camp to help her get close to her mother. Josie's absent father is in the diplomatic core and she waits, hoping he will use his influence to get them all released. But before that can happen, Arlette's son is removed from the kinderzimmer and she has no idea where he been taken and he is never returned. Following the war, she will search non-stop for him and this will take her to French Guiana where she will uncover some nefarious activity at a boys camp called Hope House and the suspicious people who run it. In Josie's life post war, she returns to the US and becomes an Army Intelligence officer at a base in TX. Her role there is to vet former Nazi scientists and their value to serving the American cause but she is disgusted by how so many high ranking former Nazis are given passes to live the good life post war and not going to trial for their war crimes. One such criminal is called Dr. Snow whose notorious experiments in Ravensbrück may go unpunished because the US wants him to join the US programs. Josie is assigned to find him and make an offer so lucrative that he won't turn tail and go to Russia instead. The trail for this individual will lead her to French Guiana where Arlette and Josie will once again team up to track him down. As the women begin to put the pieces together, the ending was a brilliant twist that I doubt the reader will see coming.
The story is told in two timelines (during the war and post war) and two POVs (Josie and Arlette). There is a lot of history, characters and plotlines that are woven throughout and at times was a bit much to follow. Sometimes, I found the writing a little contrived and convenient with unnecessary dialog (like Arlette's lusting after Claudio) to be entirely believable. Like when Josie "meets" up with Ariana in Rome out of nowhere, all I could do was roll my eyes. That said, there is so much to learn from this book. The Vatican's role in the "ratline" as it was called that helped Nazis move safely away from capture and provide them with fake ID and money to get themselves to South America or other places far from the reaches of justice was a shock. It didn't say but wouldn't surprise me that what the Hope House stood for was actually being replicated by these runaway Nazis. The fact that Hitler was supporting the science to find a virus to wipe out non-Aryan cultures was also a shock. Can you imagine if it had succeeded?
I highly recommend this book. The second half is a page-turner and breath-holding. The cliffhangers at the end of each chapter makes it hard to put down. It is so well researched and don't overlook the Author's Note following the story as it shares the jumping off point for this work.

Josie, a government worker in El Paso Texas is vetting scientists brought over from Germany after WWII for a program called Operation Paperclip. Arlette, a cafe shop worker in Paris, is desperate to find out if her son is still alive after being taken from her at Ravensbruck concentration camp during the war. The story, between flashbacks and present day, winds together to tell the story of how Josie and Arlette know each other and their mission during and after the war.

If you loved Lilac Girls and the follow ups, you'll love this new book from Martha Hall Kelly. It gets a little clunky at the end, but it's worth the read from front to back.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The opinions are my own.

Interesting book with multiple points of view which flashback and forth between 1944 in occupied Paris and globe hop in 1952. The characters are intriguing, relatable, and complex. The story follows to Resistance Spies during their time in occupied France through interment in Ravensbruck to their lives years after the liberation. I very much enjoyed Kelly’s commitment to bringing awareness to the treatment of women and children at Ravensbruck as well as her ability to create engaging characters.

I started reading The Golden Doves before Christmas. Maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I could not motivate myself to keep reading. The script seems disjointed, and I didn't care for the dialogue and language. I wanted to like this. It seems like an intriguing novel and storyline. I wish I could have continued but didn't. Thank you NetGalley and Martha Hall Kelly for the opportunity to read this book!

Martha Hall Kelly is truly a master at historical fiction. Her research is so thorough and grounded it demands to be read and contemplated. Unless one has read extensively about this particularly period, one might not even notice a simple sentence that looks like it could be fictional but is actually ground in reality.
2 female underground spies, known as the Golden Doves, use the ham radio network to intercept German communications and transmit them to the allies. One, Josie, was American and the other Arlette, a Parisian. The work was dangerous and complicated and the Gestapo were after them. When discovered, they were sent to Ravensbruck, a concentration camp of women, mostly composed of political prisoners. Arlette brought her German born baby son, whose father was probably killed in the war. The conditions were deplorable and many of the women were subject to medical experimentation.
The time line alternates between these two voices set in the before period(1940's) and the after year of 1952. The voices alternated as well as the time frame. Early on I found it confusing but primarily it was because I was so invested in the particular time period that I didn't want to switch focus. The after period was a decade later with Josie working in the US Intelligence and Arlette desperately searching for her son who was taken away from her in the camp. During this period, they search to bring down the doctors who caused such misery and attempt to find out the fate of Arlette's son. Was he alive? The tension really heightened as a game of cat and mouse unfolded, with a wider view of the atrocities played out during this period. Germ warfare, viral illness, racial prejudice, Aryan purity and selection, homes setup to raise pure Aryan children as a patriotic duty to the country(Lebensborn), duplicity, and even the Mossad enter into the dynamics of this terrific book. The valuable role of female spies makes one understand the incredible contributions that were made by many unsung heroes, while the fate of the German SS, war criminals and fugitives were scattered in Argentina and even the US without ever having to be accountable. If you are interested in this period, reading this is a must. The author's previous novel, The Lilac Girls, is not necessary to read before but I highly recommend tackling it at some point. In addition, The German wife by Kelly Rimmer discusses Operation Paperclip in detail, but from the point of view of a German scientist's family who did not believe in the Reich. The Escape Artist: the Man who Broke out of Auschwitz to Warn the World, a nonfiction easily readable book by Jonathan Friedland, gives an inside look at camp life and Cradles of Reich by Jennifer Coburn explains in detail the Lebensborn program. Book groups that like this time period will have a field day discussing this novel-fascinating knowledge, moral dilemmas and a spy game of utter excitement.

Things I loved:
1. Martha Hall Kelly - her ability to bring historical fiction to life is like no other! This book educated me and kept me engaged through every page. The amount of research that the author does is amazing!
2. Fast paced, engaging. The characters were very engaging.
3. Continues to keep the stories of WW2 in front of us so that we don't ever forget!

Things I wished were a little different:
1. I think it could have been a little shorter with some editing.

Thanks to NetGalley, Edelweiss, Ballantine Books and Martha Hall Kelly for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is due to be published April 18th 2023.

The Golden Doves is a WWII story of life in Paris during the war, the young women that helped the resistance, and the devastating torture camps, then the post war hunt for war criminals and the ongoing experiments after the war. Who knew? This was eye opening in so many ways. Loved the story of the Golden Doves and what went on before, during, and after the war. I hope there is a sequel to this! Highly recommended.

3.8 stars A great read for anyone interested in historical fiction surrounding WWII and/or the Nazi era. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Martha Hall Kelly is an incredibly talented author. It is one thing to be able to write a fictional story from your imagination but an entirely different story writing it from facts and making sure those facts work with both the characters and the storyline you create.

It never ceases to amaze me all the underhanded political events that have taken place and will always take place. Operation Paper Clip being one of those events covered in detail in this story.

Josie and Arlette team up in France and work as spies for the resistance. They are excellent at what they do and get to be known as The Golden Doves. They are on some of the most wanted lists and the reward for them is high. At some point they end up captured but not for the reasons you would think, they end up in a concentration camp.

Arlette’s son gets taken from her while they are at the camp and she is on a mission to find him. Arlette’s aunt is greedy and selfish, she wants to take over Arlette’s apartment so causes lots of havoc and trouble for her. Josie’s father is a diplomat, can he pull enough strings to help save them?

There is so much going on in this story that all comes together at the end. LOVED IT! Get a copy ASAP.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I was already a fan of this author going into this novel. It is a beautifully told story of strong women who overcome unspeakable hardship and triumph in the end. It’s a fascinating look into the lives and subsequent punishment of resistance spies. I was sucked right in

Just when I think I’ve found my favorite Martha Hall Kelly book, she writes another that is even better. Her writing and the amount of research she does to authenticate her historical fiction is beyond impressive. This story has an enthralling yet intricate plot, admirable and complex female protagonists and a mystery that will keep readers guessing right up until the ending. Historical fiction doesn’t get any better than this.

This book is absolutely fantastic. Go buy it. Now.

I read a lot of WWII fiction, and Martha Hall Kelly has blended excellent historical research, a fast-paced mystery, two great heroines, and a great storyline into an outstanding novel in The Golden Doves. This book honestly has almost everything I want in a good historical fiction novel. It tells the story of Josie, an American Jew living in Paris, and Arlette, a French woman with a partially German child. Both live in occupied Paris during WWII and join the Underground to fight the Germans, becoming the Golden Doves, a duo renowned for fighting the Germans. At the same time, the story tells us about their post-war lives--Josie lives in Texas working for Army Intelligence, tracing ex-Nazis and Arlette works at a coffeeshop in Paris, searching for her son from whom she was separated when they were locked in Ravensbruck. When Josie is sent to search for Dr. Snow, a Nazi and doctor the Army wants to recruit before the Russians can, her search leads her across the world to find the man who escaped justice; while the Army wants to recruit him to help with their own biological research, Josie's search is more personal because he is the reason her mother was killed in Ravensbruck. Meanwhile, Arlette is contacted by Luc Minau, a man from French Guinea who runs a camp for orphans, who may have found her long-lost son. As Arlette and Josie travel across the world, they find their missions intersecting on a global scale.

This book was so good--it was fast-paced, well-researched, and interesting. I liked hearing about post-war France and Germany, as well as about the Nazis who escaped through the "ratline" to South America. This book illuminated so much about that era of history which is often overlooked and discusses many of the atrocities inflicted by the Nazis on concentration camp prisoners from a very personal perspective. It was at times extremely personal and touching and at other times funny and thrilling. I enjoyed the mystery, which I didn't figure out until the very end, and appreciated the way Kelly wove details through the entire book. At times the back and forth nature of the storytelling from the 40s to the 50s felt very abrupt, especially since there were two POVs and two timelines--it didn't always feel well integrated with some of the shorter chapter lengths. However, overall, it was an outstanding book, and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5!

The Golden Doves by Martha Hall Kelly is a gripping and emotional novel of two heroines who could not rest knowing that many Nazi monsters were still alive and living well after the end of WWII. This historical fiction novel is grounded in fact, making the story even more compelling. I read so many pages with a hand over my mouth and tears in my eyes, but never once did I consider putting the book down for more than a quick tissue break. Highly recommend (and don't skip the author's note at the end!)!!!

A bit different than those of us who have been reading Martha Hall Kelly's Ferriday Family stories, but exciting, none the less. This one involves 2 women who were incarcerated in the infamous Ravensbrook Camp during WWII for their work with the resistance. As always, Hall Kelly has done her research and we learn more about this awful place (what they did with mothers and babies was especially gruesome). Then quite a few years down the road (after surviving this terrible trial)the two women team up again to seek out former high ranking Nazi's living in South America. Also some interesting background on how the U.S. military recruited former Nazi scientists to work for the U.S. government in their desire to win the Cold War in Russia. A pretty decent 'spy' novel from someone who hasn't attempted this genre previously. Recommended

A decent thriller about women who worked in the French Resistance in WWII, were captured and sent to Ravensbruck, and are now back in the game, willingly and unwillingly. The various plots stretch the willing suspension of disbelief some, and the entire Fleur plotline could have been removed, moving its important details into the main narrative, but otherwise this will appeal to fans of historical fiction.